Martinsville Speedway is the first short-track race on the schedule. Is this a track you’re looking forward to?

“Short track racing is what I grew up racing on, so I’m really looking forward to Martinsville Speedway this weekend. We were supposed to test in preparation for this weekend, since I’ll be making my debut, but unfortunately weather got the best of us. Lucky for me, ThorSport Racing has a good notebook to work from, and we are taking a proven chassis. My teammate, Matt (Crafton) has had some success there, and I’m sure I’ll lean on him a lot this weekend for advice. After three weeks off, I’m ready to get back to the track.”

News & Notes:

Chassis Chatter… The No. 13 ThorSport Racing team will unload chassis No. 49 for Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. This is the same chassis former ThorSport Racing driver, Cameron Hayley piloted to two top-five finishes in 2015 at Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis and Martinsville-2. Teammate Ben Rhodes also sat on the pole with this particular chassis in Martinsville-1 in 2016, and scored two top-five finishes at Iowa Speedway in Newton and Gateway.

Martinsville Debut… Cody Coughlin will make his Martinsville Speedway debut in Saturday’s 250-lap event at the .526-mile paperclip. In fact, this will be the JEGS driver’s first career short track start in 14 NCWTS races.

Chasing Rookie of the Year… Coughlin, who finished 16th in the series last stop at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway (AMS) is currently fourth in the 2017 Sunoco Rookie of the Year battle after two of 23 races.

Truck Series Stats… Coughlin has made 14 NCWTS starts since 2015, with a career-best start of seventh at Talladega (Al.) Superspeedway (2016), and a career-best finish of 11th at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (2017).